


You Tried Steve

by orphan_account



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Billy is a sneaky piece of shit, But Jonathan comes in more at the end., Jonathan is more of a side character here, M/M, Steve is a pining fool, Stonathan Week 2017, and Tommy and Carol are the Dip Shits.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 12:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13100424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Steve is sort of hopeless. Hopelessly in love with Jonathan Byers.At one point, he decides to show the younger male the extent of his love, however, it doesn't really go the way he wants it to go. With a few shitty suggestions from friends and a well-earned shove, Steve manages to get the boy he wants. As well as a budding relationship.





	You Tried Steve

**Author's Note:**

> Day Four: Cheesy Clichés
> 
> I am still a day behind. I'm going to see if I can post both day 5 and 6 tomorrow, but let's see how far we go. This is a shorter fic and is more of a long stream of mental breakdowns than any serious writing. oml.

Realistically, Steve didn’t care anymore, not when he could casually run his fingers through the mop of dark blond whenever he wanted, not when he could curl his arms around the lithe body, not when he would kiss and watch the small smile gracing soft lips. Steve couldn’t give a rat’s arse about anything when he had Jonathan Byers to himself.

But he couldn’t stop himself, in these moments of silence, from remembering what he did to get to this position. Looking back at the somewhat aloof and unbelievably out of his league mop of dark blonde, Steve couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. Jonathan Byers grumbles and tucks himself further into Steve’s warmth, arms wrapped loosely around his waist.

Back then, he was the bloody king of the high school. (Okay he still is, but there is a difference between being the king and The King.)

Girls and guys would swoon at his feet with fingers twirled in their hair and teeth worrying their bottom lips. Steve was picking from a pool of basically anyone and everyone he could ever want, but he had to fall head over heels with a pale skinned boy who paid him no mind.

And because he was friends with Tommy and Carol (otherwise known as Dip and Shit), Steve spent a good year trying to woo Jonathan Byers through the most embarrassing and romantically cliché ways.

  1. Flowers for My Valentine



Steve’s first attempt included a dozen roses and Jonathan’s locker. Tommy had insisted everyone wanted a massive bouquet of roses for Valentine’s Day and Carol had chimed to comment on the allure and curiosity that lingered with a card saying ‘From your Secret Admirer.’

He had spent the morning convincing the sweetly protective Nancy Wheeler to give up Jonathan’s locker combination. He was grilled, toasted and twice fried with a rapid interrogation over his intentions with the younger boy followed by a litany of threats to his testicles and general existence. Completely understandable. Jonathan was a precious guy.

Nancy eventually gave Steve permission to go for Jonathan, a smug smile lingering on her lips.

So, once he had managed to snag the right code of numbers, Steve had headed to school before any other students, all the while holding a mountainous stack of roses cut fresh from his mother’s garden. He walked into school with a jump in his step, giddy from the prospect of finally letting Jonathan know.

Steve located the locker and counted the clicks of the lock before it swung open to reveal an awfully neat and organised system of books, stationery and camera equipment. Steve cleared a small space on one of the shelves and places the bunch of roses carefully.

He nudges the door closed with his hip, smug smile pulling at his lips only to find the one and only Jonathan Byers glaring at Steve, clearly unimpressed.

“What are you doing in my locker?” the boy asks irritated. (Steve knows this because Jonathan had a tendency to narrow his eyes as if he were scrutinizing, body stiffened as if ready for a fight.)

All Steve is able to do is garble and squawk while Jonathan pushes him aside and deftly clears the coded lock. The next few moments seem to add salt to a wound and Steve remembers it in great clarity and slow motion. The door creaks open and Jonathan’s eyes widen in surprise at the sight of the roses before a yelp of pain echoes through the empty school hallways.

The younger boy clutches the lower half of his face, hissing and trembling in pain. Steve tries to help but is swatted away by an angry Nancy who glares him into a shameful retreat. (She later hits him harder, leaving a bruise which purples on his bicep the next day.)

That day, rumours flew from one nosy bastard to another.

“Steve Harrington gave Jonathan Byers a bee for Valentine’s and it stung his nose.”

Tommy and Carol wouldn’t stop laughing when Nancy Wheeler approached their lunch table and verbally tore into Steve.

  1. Passing Love Letters Like We’re in Primary



With the more… natural attempt a complete failure, Steve turned to some other methods. Carol had suggested something sweet and made for high school. She had sat Steve down and ordered him to write out a message for Jonathan before snatching it, giggling as she scanned it, and folded it into a passable note.

Now, Steve wasn’t in any of Jonathan’s classes being a year older and all. Carol, on the other hand, had flunked her history classes and had to repeat that course to pass, leaving her in the same room as the Byers boy. They part ways when the bell rings, but Steve is wary. He’d trust Carol to do something correctly as far as he could throw her.

Meaning not very much at all.

Unfortunately for Steve, he was right to be wary. By the end of the school day, a new rumour started to circulate. This one made Steve’s blood boil and freeze at the same time. It boiled because Billy Fucking Hargrove had apparently received a love letter meant for Jonathan.

Freeze because - Billy Fucking Hargrove.

Steve wanted to throttle Carol then run over to sock Hargrove in the face in hopes of making the guy forget. (Steve knows this won’t work. He had tried it before and come home with a rather busted lip and a colourful collection of bruises which remained for a few days.) He ends up shaking a hysterically laughing Carol into a headache and hiding from any Billy shaped figure for the rest of the week.

Jesus Christ, he was going to die and Jonathan, sweet Jonathan, would have no idea what was going on in his stupid little heart.

  1. Tossing Rocks at My Window



Steve doesn’t learn his lesson with trusting the DipShit duo. His next attempt to get Jonathan’s attention comes from the batshit crazy mouth of Tommy.

Tommy was disgustingly gross about the whole thing, though he had a strangely tight and loving relationship with Carol. He had made lewd comments about Jonathan, made Steve jealous beyond belief and dared to snag the poor boy’s camera once, snapping a few stupid shots of Steve’s face.

But for some reason, there was a slight romantic within the fool. Tommy had sat Steve down having become ‘sick of your puppy love and ready to get you laid’. That very evening, Tommy had whisked Steve out of his house and driven to the Byers’ household – how he got the address, Steve would never know.

Steve peered out the car window, taking in the sight of a weathered by somewhat rustic looking home. Soft oranges mingled with slivers of bright yellow filtered from between the curtains, giving the house a welcoming sensation. Out front, Steve saw Jonathan’s car, just his, meaning no one else was home. Really though, it didn’t matter what the building looked like. Steve was simply enthralled by the fact that _he was at Jonathan’s house, holy shit._

He finds himself booted out of the car with a pile of cardboard sheets and a single white rose (Steve was scared of the red ones now).

Tommy then grunts a few instructions about the third window to the right and drives off, tyres rolling up a dust storm as the car sped into the distance.

It is important to note that Tommy is a piece of shit – selfish, judgmental and an unapologetic bully. Steve was caught up in this moment of kindness mixed with his growing crush on a boy and had forgotten all of this and his possible ulterior motives.

Steve didn’t know that the third window on the right was Will Byers’ room when he threw the first rock at the window.

Steve didn’t know that the cards in his hands screamed ‘Hey Weirdo, lemme show you a good time,’ especially not when he raised it in front of him, hopeful smiling at the figure in the window.

He did realise he fucked up when he heard a childlike and prepubescent voice yell about perverts and stalkers and _Jonathan, there’s a creep outside my window!_

  1. The Classic Tumble and Accidental Kiss



Steve had given up. He gets stink eyes from Nancy, hateful glares from Billy and a cacophony of laughter from his friends. To top off this shit pile he had thrown himself into, Jonathan Byers still did not glance his way, fall into his lap and make heart eyes at him. (Sue him, he is damn hopeful)

He tells Tommy and Carol that he had given up pursuing the unpursuable Jonathan, moaning and whining at the loss of his love, his life and the very joy of the small town high school. He laments his inability to start a conversation with the boy he likes, let alone build a relationship.

Steve’s self-wallowing carries into his PE class where an inter-class game of dodgeball was to take place. Tommy consistently kicks at his shins and ankles, whispering in an irritated manner to Carol. Their class shuffles their way into the gymnasium, filling the large hall with the chirping of over-energetic students, intensifying the already prevalent and pungent perfume of sweaty teenage boy. (The girls never smell. Steve has learnt never to comment should he like to keep his hair on his head.)

“Fucking hell Steve, wipe that pout off your face. You are pathetic,” he hears Carol chime in, “We are playing against his class, go show off or something.”

Steve looks up, suddenly eager.

Scanning the gaggle of students that file into the opposite side of the room, Steve manages to catch Jonathan’s gaze and gives him a brilliant grin. He gets a slightly deepened frown and furrowed brows in return, but hey, who is he to complain? A reaction is a reaction.

(Steve realises belatedly that Billy Hargrove walked in and stood beside Jonathan. Hargrove pulls on an expression of disgust and simmering hatred, which Steve, being the oblivious love-struck fool he is, doesn’t realise. It’s a warning – and he didn’t take it._

Set up, teacher comments and team division go by smoothly and uneventfully. Steve and Jonathan are on opposite sides while Steve and Billy have landed in the same one. This uneventfulness continues. Okay well, as uneventful as high school dodgeball can get – it is much like a stereotypical game. It goes smoothly for the first round. Throughout this round, Steve spends his time just watching the dark blonde boy – nimbly dodging where he could, quietly making his way across the court to tag others out. Strategic. Steve gets caught out half way through the game because he is so distracted.

Tommy boos him.

But halfway through the second, it seems as if Billy had caught onto Steve’s pining ways and pegs a dodgeball particularly hard into Jonathan, sending the boy onto the ground. There is a moment of silence, filled with the ragged pants of a large group of sweating students. Jonathan stays prone on the ground, chest rising and falling deeply. He pushes himself onto his feet just as the coach calls Billy out for inappropriate behaviour.

Now, Steve is stationed right up against the half-court line because he is cocky like that. Billy has to walk past him to reach the benches and Jonathan shuffles towards the line, right in front of Steve.

Billy places a good shove onto Steve’s back, sending him crashing into Jonathan. There is a bit of a tumble and a groan (seeing that this is the second time in five minutes that Jonathan has been knocked onto his ass). There was the knocking of foreheads and a rather ungraceful cry from Steve.

But more importantly, no, most importantly (Steve is actually internally screaming in joy but he cannot show that), Steve ended up landing a clumsy kiss onto Jonathan’s lips. It is a very brief one, more a crashing of mouths than anything before they both crumble onto the ground.

Steve manages to catch himself before landing onto Jonathan, arms caged by the younger boy’s head.

  1. Just Talk To Me, You Goddamn Idiot.



They were sent to the school nurse for icepacks together. Students whispered and gossiped as both Jonathan and Steve left the room, emphasising things such as ‘crush’, ‘kinda grossly cute’ and ‘hopeless’.

They’re silent as they make their way down the winding school hallways.

Steve keeps glancing nervously at his crush right beside him. He sort of steps a few centimetres closer before immediately adding more distance between them. It is pathetic really, he tell himself. He knows that he looks like a thirteen year old girl fawning over some older high school boy she liked. He knows he made himself a fool – but he just can’t help it.

A Steve Harrington in love is a jumble of clumsy limbs and stumbled words. He was hopeless.

“You can just talk to me y’know,” a soft voice sounds from besides him, “I would have just told you that I like you too.”

Steve stops, stunned, while Jonathan takes a few more steps before turning to face Steve. There is the signature frown on the younger boy’s face but at the very tips of his lips, there is a curl, the slightest hint of a cheeky smile.

Steve’s mouth opens and closes much like a fish, his arms making awkward flopping motions before one hand comes to clasp his forehead. Jonathan lets out a small laugh, something breathy and short. Steve loves the sound.

“That- That works too, I guess,” comes a reply all flustered and shy. Steve wants to smack himself for saying that out loud, he really loses all functionality with the other around. He takes one look at the younger’s blushed features and throws all inhibitions out the window.

Steve just gives in, reaches over to grab Jonathan’s hand and pulls the boy towards him. Once close enough, he leans down and places a slow kiss onto Jonathan’s lips, breaking apart with a self-satisfied grin.

\---

Jonathan stirs in Steve’s lap, blearily glancing up to see his boyfriend smiling goofily. He is careful to move quietly, sitting up and throwing a leg over Steve’s. He ends up straddling the boy, laughing at the startled expression accompanied by a jostling and a blubbering of ‘what’s. It is comforting though, to feel the warm grasp of Steve’s hands at his waist, pulling him in close enough to capture him in a deep kiss.

When they do pull apart, breathing in short puffs, breathing in each other breaths, breathing in each other scent, Jonathan leans his forehead against Steve’s. His hands are cupping Steve’s face, fingers stroking where they meet his ridiculous hair.

“What were you thinking about, looking like such an idiot?” he asks.

All Jonathan gets is another kiss, much longer, much slower, much sweeter. All Jonathan can do is gasp into Steve’s mouth as a hand snakes under his shirt, petting his skin.

_What love-struck fools we are._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave comments and criticism on whatever you saw in my work. The usual trend is that I write at 2-3AM and publish something completely unplanned, completely unedited and indefinitely unbetaed. Have a good one!


End file.
